Latest study confirms: digital technologies generate jobs

Digital technologies are no job killer – quite the contrary! That is the result of a study from Karlsruhe’s academia, announced by Ralph Appel, head of The Association of German engineers, at the Hannover Messe 2017. That being said, German engineers can finally release tension, since digitalization had been suspected of destroying jobs for quite a while. As a distributer for used TRUMPF punching machines, press brakes and laser cutting systems, we, the I-H&S GmbH, are always interested in giving you the latest information about industry 4.0. This time, we take a look at how engineers and industry 4.0 are about to cooperate.

No more speculation

To add clarity to the discussion about the job opportunities for German engineers, the Association of German engineers now tasked scientists to find out how the digitization affects the production in Germany. Those scientists from Karlsruhe’s academia and Frauenhofer-Instituts für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI report that around 500 companies of the manufacturing sector shifted production to Germany. According to the survey of 2015, particularly EU core States and North America feel the need to go back to their German home base. Above all, especially digital companies perceive Germany as an attractive business location. Reasons are possibly custom production and thus required proximity to the customer and no weight carrying labor costs, which are the result of an increased automated production.

Human and robot intensify their relation at work

The human-robot-collaboration is part of future’s factories and consequently of the industry 4.0. It’s a fact that human and robot will have to share workspaces. With their intimidating force, nowadays, robots are still threatening – that’s about to change with the so called “collaborative robot”, also named “Cobot”. “Especially smaller companies need more coefficient, easy solutions in case they are motivated to benefit from the opportunities industry 4.0 offers”, claims Arno Reich, department manager in all matters of automation at the Hannover Messe, referring to an early use of Cobots. “We are developing technologies, which -on the one hand- allow robots to move freely and -on the other hand- make it possible for humans to cooperatively and intuitively work with robots without any risk of injury”, Dr. Norbert Elkmann, head of Frauenhofer’s robot system, explains. With that being said, German engineers are not only uneffected but rather enriched by their proximity to technology.

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